Cathead

I have two fun updates to this log! One is to share some nice photos Mrs. Cathead took of the finished model, since I never really shared a full photo shoot of this build. The other is to announce that I've started a build log in the non-ships section of MSW for the model railroad project that will be Peerless' future home. This will be a major project for me over the next few years, so if you're interested in how it develops, come check it out. It'll feature my typical mix of sharing lots of local history and geography that influence the modeling work. Here's a teaser:

While I'm most known on MSW for my scratch-built Missouri River steamboats (see signature links), my interest in transportation along the Missouri River extends to that great rival of river traffic, railroads. So I'm taking a break from steamboat modeling to build at least one module of a possibly larger model railroad depicting the route of the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas railroad along the Missouri River valley in central Missouri, ca. 1900, complete with at least one river scene featuring a contemporary steamboat. MK&T passenger train along the Missouri River, ca. 1900 (State Historical Society of Missouri): This will be a typical build for me in that it'll be laced with details of local history and geography that set a context for the models. As a former model railroader who transitioned to shipbuilding for a while, I'm finding that I miss the ability to set models in their full context. Most ship models end up sitting passively on a shelf, while a model railroad allows one to actually operate the model realistically through an entire landscape. As a geologist and naturalist who's lived in this area for almost 20 years, I have a strong connection to the Missouri River valley, having extensive experience hiking among its hills, birding within its floodplain, biking along its corridor, and paddling beneath its bluffs. Mrs. Cathead on a shared river trip; these are the same bluffs shown in the next photo below: The Missouri River's route through central Missouri is far more scenic than outsiders with a "flatland" view of the Midwest might suspect. The river follows a 1-2 mile wide gorge lined by limestone and dolomite bluffs towering up to 300 feet over the floodplain. Rail lines built along this corridor were forced to hug the valley walls by the huge river's constant meandering, making their routes often look like overdone model railroads with straight bluffs absolutely dwarfing the trains below. The Missouri Pacific built up the valley's south side in the mid-19th century, while the MK&T (more commonly called the Katy) built down the north side in the 1890s. MK&T main line squeezed between tall limestone bluffs and the Missouri River, ca. 1912, same bluffs as above (State Historical Society of Missouri): This project has been in the planning stage for several years, and directly influenced my last steamboat build, the Peerless, a small steamboat that operated on the lower Missouri River between St. Louis and the small central Missouri town of Rocheport. I built that model at the common model railroading scale of 1:87 (HO) to allow for its possible future inclusion on a diorama or layout depicting this region. Historic photo of Peerless (State Historical Society of Missouri) and model version for comparison: The immediate focus of this build is the scenic river town of Rocheport, framed to west and east by some of the most dramatic bluffs anywhere along the lower Missouri, and home of the only tunnel anywhere on the Katy system. This was a major river port in the pre-Civil-War era, and was the upriver home port for Peerless during its 1893-1903 operations on the river. The Katy built through Rocheport in the mid-1890s, meaning the two co-existed for nearly a decade, the perfect hook for a steamboat-and-railroad enthusiast. Rocheport in the early 1900s, as seen from bluff tops to east and west (State Historical Society of Missouri): Today, Rocheport is a popular tourist town, known for its B&Bs and nearby vineyards, and brought to prominence by its central location along the 240-mile Katy Trail. This is Missouri's cross-state rail trail that follows the old MK&T line (abandoned in the 1980s), and is the longest continuous rail trail in the country. I've cycled the entire length, but like many people, am always drawn back to Rocheport's incomparable scenic setting. The trail also makes modeling the MK&T in this area particularly attractive, since the right-of-way is unusually accessible! Rocheport tunnel and river bluffs (same bluffs as other photos) along the modern Katy Trail: There's a lot more background information to share, and construction has already started, so this log will work to catch up on past progress while continuing to explain the design, purpose, and context of the project. It's going to be wordy for a while but there's also lots of neat imagery to share. I didn't initially intend to track this with a build log, looking forward to being freed from the tyranny of photography, writing, and reporting. But I'm finding that I miss the community that develops around a build, and I think there's a really neat historical story to tell. And writing about one's work can sometimes help clarify or altering thinking about a project in ways that being too lone-wolf can miss. So welcome aboard! One more historic photo, and three shots of the layout underway.

I'd agree that the original trim looks black. I'd been going to suggest, if you wanted a different color, using the dark red used so often in this period for everything from steamboats to barns to boxcars, because it was one of the cheapest and easiest pigments to produce. But then you said you weren't partial to red, so...black is fine. I might suggest that the current black comes on a little strong, and you could either tone it down with some weathering, or redo it using a slightly flatter greyish black. Otherwise I'd double down on the bordello look, put the linoleum back in, and do the trim in a nice purple with flowers twining up the corners.

Your wheel looks great! Excellent detail and nice consistent construction.

Looks great! Definitely a very fun "model" to build. Trying to decide if we'll have the guts one year to tear it down and do it all over again!

Keith, I look forward to your adventures attempting to hand-make that spittoon on the floor by the stove. My vote is for plain wooden flooring. It's something the viewer "expects" to see and so fits nicely with the overall aesthetic.

Woe, woe, the mighty Keith has been defeated. All ye rend clothing in despair!

I don't know that there would be all that much smoke and fumes (noise, on the other hand...). Vessels like this used tall chimneys to carry away smoke and create sufficient draft for the firebox. I have no knowledge of whether there might have been gratings, but most of these boats (likely including original Lula) were so lightly built that there wouldn't be anything between the pilothouse floor and whatever's below other than some thin oak or pine planks. I'd go with the assumption, suggested by others, that there were steam pipes/radiators run up from the boiler immediately below, especially given the configuration you're using. Possibly with some kind of shut-of valve since the last thing you want in July is a hot radiator up there! Whatever boiler heat passes up there in winter, also passes up there in summer!

Lynn, thanks for your interest. I'm not currently working on a nautical model, taking a break from that to work on a model railroad project. Not one I'm writing up on MSW for now, though every now and then I get the itch to share, though I also enjoy the break from having to photograph and write up everything.

Great improvement! One subtle detail for the rest of the deadeyes: in the triangular pattern of holes, the "triangle" should be upside down, with two holes even across the top and the single one at the bottom. Lots of people don't realize this and put the deadeyes in any which way. It's the kind of detail only pedantic people notice, but it will make rigging a bit easier to have the holes oriented properly and reduce lines tangling or crossing over one another. The opposite is true for the deadeye that will eventually connect to this one. See this diagram posted elsewhere on MSW.

Great answer, Keith, that's exactly why I phrased it as a design question rather than a "you did it wrong" question. And I had entirely forgotten about those boxes along the walls. Thanks for indulging me.

Keith, great to see you getting "a head" on this model... Question about the engine maintenance doors: I'm curious why you chose vertical ones rather than the horizontal hatches common on many steamboats (since they provide full lengthwise access along the engines' horizontal extent in tight spaces). Not implying you should re-do it, just legitimately interested in the design discussion. See below drawing of Bertrand for an example of what I mean. And it just occurred to me that you could still add a version of these forward of each vertical door, if you wanted. Would add even more visual interest to the engine room walls.

That's a great read, thanks!

Not just a long-ago problem. I based my 1850s steamboat Arabia in part on a modern painting of the vessel (artist's interpretation since no contemporary images exist), and while the guy is a wonderful historic artist, he's not a steamboat expert and there are a few blatant errors including one almost M.C. Escher level one that can't work in the real world even though it looks nice on canvas. All part of the fun of recreating history from art!

It means a lot to see you able to return to this project. Thanks for keeping us a part of it.

Keith, you owe me a new thesaurus, mine broke when I tried to come up with proper new praise for your work.

On an American riverboat it'd go main deck, boiler deck (the one above the boilers, don't ask why), hurricane deck, Texas deck, with the pilot house on top.

Between your project and Keith's, I think I'm retiring from steamboat building. The bar has been set too high, LOL.

I prefer sternwheelers too. Three of my four steamboat builds have been sternwheelers and the only exception was because Arabia was too good a local project to pass up.

I should be used to your standard of work by now, but my jaw literally dropped when I saw that wheel. Better than any I've ever built and in a much smaller scale. Just fantastic.

Given that those are listed as stanchions with one hole, I'd bet they'd work just fine as long as the vertical dimension is correct. And I'd agree they look better than pins.

I can't tell what you're showing in photo 2, so have no way to answer whether that item has a hole in it or whether it would work. I assume it's some kind of after-market product you found online? More context would really help with offering advice. As a broader answer, this kit makes a nice-looking model but it isn't even remotely accurate as a scale model of a Mississippi riverboat. So you're free to choose whatever visual theme looks best to you, and if you like the look of the item in photo 2, you should feel free to use it (assuming it's physically capable of the role).

Ugh, so sorry to hear of your rotten health luck lately. I'm sure the "bum wing" doesn't make caregiving any easier. Hang in there, even one-armed, and look forward to better days soon.

That's glorious!

I agree with the other suggestions above: make sure you're done working with the metal piece, clean it well and handle it carefully, abrade the surface, and consider using a primer first. The biggest difference I've seen with Model Shipways paint vs. other brands is the former tends to be much thicker. This isn't necessarily bad, for example it makes a solid coat on things like metal and plastic when using a brush, where thinner paints sometimes don't coat easily. I'd also suggest, as in so many cases, practicing on some scrap material first to see what methods produce the best result. Brass blackening agents work very well, and I've also had success using a blackener followed by a coat of paint. But a warning: blackeners are fairly strong chemical agents and they will produce fumes; not something to use lightly in your living room or a confined workspace. Consider doing blackening in a garage or outdoors setting where the fumes can dissipate while you're not around. I've gotten multiple headaches from being around blackening fumes even for a short time.